Future of the Body Armor

By: Alex De Mostafa

After Kevlar was invented in the 70s, many other corporations did research and came out with a number of alternatives fabrics claimed to be bullet proof like Honeywell’s Gold Flex and Spectra, DSM’s Dyneema, Teijin Twaron’s Twaron and Zylon from Toyobo. These materials were widely publicized as being thinner, lighter and more bullet resistant than Kevlar at the same time being more expensive than Kevlar.

The US standards for Body Armor allow a depression by bullet impact on Body Armor protected wax mannequin upto a maximum of 44 mm. The German have kept their standard as a much stringent limit of 20 mm as they have found the US standard may lead to lethal injuries.

In recent years much advances in material science and technology have opened the doors to the age-old idea of a really "bulletproof vest" that will not only be able to stop handgun and the lethal rifle bullets but that too without the use of any heavy and restrictive extra ceramic or metal plating. The soft body armor currently being used can stop most usual handgun rounds. For extra protection from rifle rounds and unique handgun rounds such as 7.62x25 mm use of metal or ceramic plating is required. Other researches are being carried out to harness nanotechnology to provide really super strength to materials that would have the potential of being used for making future bulletproof vests.

Presently, there are two unique methods by which nanotechnology materials are being used for Body Armor production. The first one uses nano-particles inside the Body Armor which become rigid enough as soon as a pressure threshold is breached by the impact of a bullet. These nano-particles infused Body Armor are much lighter than other alternative Body Armor currently available due their special properties.

The second option was to use a nano-composite which was always rigid and was made using Tungsten Disulphide and is capable of taking hits from a steel projectiles moving at an unthinkable velocity of 1.5 kilometer per second. Under test conditions the material took an impact of 350 tons per square centimeter. The future of nanotechnology in the arena of Body Armor is very bright.

Neil Winters writes on topics such as Body Armor and Body Armor for Tactical Gears Visit Future of the Body Armor.